Continuity mistake: In Thomas Barnes' perspective, when he confronts Enrique, he says, "Don't release him" to the other Secret Service agents. But in Enrique's perspective, Barnes says, "Do not release him." (00:17:10 - 00:27:30)
Character mistake: When Barnes is trying to describe what he saw, he awkwardly describes "something like a flash of light." A Secret Service agent would know that he had seen the muzzle flash from the gunshots. (00:17:40)
Continuity mistake: In Barnes' perspective, when Taylor asks him if he saw the shooter, Barnes replies, "No, but I saw something, like a flash of light." In the Howard Lewis perspective, Barnes doesn't say "No, but..." (00:17:50 - 00:36:45)
Continuity mistake: When the US Secret Service agents take the Spanish Police agent into custody before the explosion, the agent takes the Spanish Police agent's police badge off his belt and hands it to another US Secret Service agent. After the explosion the Spanish Police agent is seen running away from scene and his police badge is shown back on his belt. (00:27:00 - 00:30:00)
Factual error: The flag on the outer left of the square keeps changing between the correct flag for Germany (horizontal black, red, yellow) as seen from the aerial shot when the bomb explodes, and a wrong version (horizontal red, yellow, black) which can be seen when Howard Lewis first accesses the square. (00:34:25)
Plot hole: During Howard's flashback the viewer sees from his point of view the two SS agents who had been following Enrique fire multiple shots at the now revealed Spanish police officer as he was talking to another police officer (Javier) who had just approached him. The scene ends leading the viewer to believe Enrique was killed by the SS agents. However, in the final scene when it's revealed that he was in fact killed by Javier the SS agents significant fire (9 shots I counted) and presence is completely forgotten. (00:40:00 - 01:12:00)
Visible crew/equipment: During the car chase the driver's seat on Kent Taylor's car is located on the left side. When he finally gets shot by Barnes and is about to crash, in one of the shots you see a person (in all probability a stuntman) sitting on the right side. (01:17:10)
Character mistake: After Barnes rescues the President, he radios in his location as "seven blocks east of the plaza." This is meaningless on the limited-access highway where they are located. Barnes has an excellent grasp of the local geography and would give their precise location with specific landmarks. (01:21:20)
Other mistake: When Dennis Quaid fires his SIG-Sauer P229 pistol on the bad guys under the over-pass, he fires 28 shots from a 10-12 round pistol without reloading.
Continuity mistake: Several times when we see what's on Forest Whitaker's camcorder, the elapsed time on the bottom corner shows the same time between shots of the screen.
Continuity mistake: During the car chase scene, some of the damage Barnes's car has taken is not there in the wider shots, but you do see it in the close up shots.
Deliberate mistake: There are several large security mistakes that were obviously added to the film to move the plot forward. The takeover of "Control" would not happen that way. The Secret Service keeps it in a secret off site location which not even the security detail knows. This location is in some kind of very remote bunker to prevent what happens in the movie. Secondly, when the threat is identified and the switch to the double is made, the President would have been moved to a secure bunker created for the purpose until the threat was dealt with.
Suggested correction: It actually could still be possible for a takeover of "Control" to happen even if it was a secret off site location/secure bunker. Depending on Taylor's security clearance and how high up he is in the secret service, he could have been one of the few in the security detail that knew where the secret location was. Since he's the one that got Barnes back on detail, he most likely has a high clearance.
No actually it couldn't be possible for takeover of control. No one in the security the detail knows where the secret location is. Even if Taylor had a high clearance it only grants access to a limited number of places. One of the places it doesn't grant access to is the secret location.
With a high enough clearance it could still have been possible. Not to mention there could have been more than one mole in the secret service other than Taylor who had the clearance to know the locations.
Read it again. "Even if Taylor had a high security clearance it only grants to a limited number of places. One of the places it doesn't grant access is the secret location." So Taylor would not have access to the secret location no matter how high his security clearance was.
Takeover control couldn't be possible if the location was an the location an off site secret bunker because the villains wouldn't be able to find it. Even if Taylor had a high security clearance he wouldn't know where the secret bunker because if he was ever allowed in there he would blindfolded to prevent him from learning where the bunker was. Taylor would get arrested if he learned where the bunker was.
Only the service officials know where the bunker is. Taylor is not a secret service official.
Factual error: The engine noises coming from the Chevrolet Astra (blue car) are not coming from any engine in that car. Only the Vauxhall and Opel variants of that model got the high performance petrol turbo engines. It's clearly a Chevrolet from the logo on the front and back of the car.
Continuity mistake: At the underpass, when Taylor realizes that Barnes is right behind him on foot, he starts driving away. He's supposed to be speeding away, yet Javier, who is injured, is able to catch up to him on foot with ease.
Deliberate mistake: In the point of view of the Hispanic cop, he is being led away by a secret service (SS) guy when the cop hears an explosion, he punches the secret service man but before the SS guy can react, the second explosion goes off. In all the other points of view, the first explosion goes off and there is 30-40 seconds of a break before the second explosion goes off. (It's clear the director needed the cop to have the distraction of the first explosion to attempt to get away, but in order for the cop to escape he had the second explosion go off seconds after).
Continuity mistake: In Barnes' perspective, when the President is shot twice, immediately after this he (the President) tilts his head to the left in response to the agony. However, in Enrique's perspective, he tilts his head right, and this isn't right, since it's the same event but from a different perspective.
Other mistake: In the last scene under the Highway, when POTUS thanks Barnes for saving his life again and when the camera starts zooming out for the end credits, in the traffic driving above the accident there is a Mexican green taxi cab VW Beetle passing through. But, the whole movie takes place in Spain.
Revealing mistake: Forest Whitaker has been running after the secret service agents for a while, but when he stops to film the cop getting shot, he isn't remotely out of breath.
Continuity mistake: When Barnes shoots Taylor and Taylor crashes, we then see a shot of Javier on the floor, with his head on his right arm and his left arm beside it. But, when we see Barnes running to the car, Javier's body is at the lower left of the screen and his right arm has moved to his back.
Other mistake: During the car chase scene, the Opel Astra (blue car) repeatedly collides with other vehicles and objects on the front end, yet the airbags don't deploy.
